Surrey County Council launches Heathrow southern rail access study

Surrey County Council has revealed plans to launch a study to examine the possibility of creating a rail link to Heathrow from the south in the month the airport celebrates its 70th anniversary.

Around 9,000 people from Surrey work at the airport but there is currently no direct rail link from the county.

It means that more than three-quarters of them currently commute to Heathrow on the county’s roads*, which are among the busiest in the country.

The news comes after a Network Rail report suggested there was a strong case for a new route connecting Heathrow, which opened on 31 May 1946 as London Airport, to Waterloo, Guildford and Basingstoke – generally referred to by the industry as ‘southern rail access’.

Last year the authority called for a new rail service to Waterloo from the airport via Staines and improved rail access to Heathrow was previously identified in the council’s rail strategy as key to helping boost economic growth.